Chapter 284: Ties

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“I thought it would take you longer to contact me.”

“As your daughter, it is my joy to exceed your expectations, dearest mother.”

Mother and daughter.

Lu Yuting and Lu Mei.

The two stand a mere twelve feet away from each other in a small park close to the residence of Lu Mei’s maternal grandparents. At such an early hour, there is no one around to interrupt them.

“As your mother, I know those words cannot mean anything good,” Lu Yuting says, giving Lu Mei a thoroughly unimpressed stare. “Nevertheless, I will ask this: Have you convinced your husband-to-be to agree to the treaties?”

Lu Mei smiles brightly. “Of course not, mother!”

Her mother sighs. “You disappoint me. I am sure he must have reassured you that the nature of your birth will not prove an impediment. However, you should know that is nothing but overly idealistic nonsense, daughter. As soon as the realities of your situation assert themselves, your union will crack and shatter.”

“Is that the voice of experience talking?”

Her mother glares at her, and though she has yet to raise her Qi, it takes all of Lu Mei’s self-control not to falter.

One’s memories can be so hard to overcome.

“Careful, girl,” her mother says. “I do not allow you to speak to me like that.”

“Of course, forgive my indiscretion,” Lu Mei says, bowing her head like her mother taught her. “It is just… something has been in my mind lately. It is the reason why I called you here, mother. Ever since this all began, there has been something that doesn’t quite fit. Something that is not right about this.”

“Your preambles are nowhere near as interesting as you believe them to be.”

Her mother’s words actually sting a little, but Lu Mei does not let that deter her.

“I will be blunt then,” she says. “How long has it been since Father got tired of you?”

Her mother’s aura rises in an instant and strikes her across the face. Lu Mei’s head turns to the side as the sharp crack of wind echoes through the park.

“I see your time away has made you insolent.”

“A proper lady does not anger easily,” Lu Mei says, quoting one of her mother’s old lessons while holding her reddened cheek and fighting the sting in her eyes. “My question was not meant as an insult, mother.”

“That makes it all the more foolish,” her mother says, coldly glaring down at her. “My marriage to your father survived your birth. Why would you think you can cast doubt on it?”

“I truly cannot compare to you, mother. You somehow made my birth sound like my fault instead of yours,” Lu Mei says, shaking her head. “However, I know enough to recognize someone trying to avoid a question.”

“You call your own mother a liar?”

“Mother, you taught me to lie,” Lu Mei points out. “However, if you have no interest in answering, I will instead tell you why there is no meaning in keeping it a secret. The first clue was your threat. For you to reveal everything makes no sense, mother.”

“Oh?” Her mother’s eyes glimmer with amusement. “Do you perhaps think I care for you too much to place you in danger? A proper lady uses the means available to her. You are not special enough to be exempt, daughter.”

“I do not think you care about me at all, mother,” Lu Mei says. “I think you care about yourself too much to attempt something like this.”

Her mother’s smile falters.

“All this time, you have made me focus on how revealing your little affair will affect me. How it will make people abandon me. How it will make me shunned. You have done all this while neglecting to mention your own sins,” Lu Mei says, putting a hand on her hip. “You are the one who seduced Lord Feng Shang. You are the one who slept with him, took his seed inside her, and bore him a daughter.”

Lu Yuting chuckles. A breeze blows through the park. “Daughter, it is already known I had an affair. Whether it is with Feng Dianzuo or Feng Shang does not matter. At worst, it will give people another piece of gossip to occupy their worthless lives.”

“It matters because Lord Feng Shang’s wife is Lady Feng,” Lu Mei says, enjoying how quickly her mother’s smile is snuffed out. “The woman takes pride in her husband’s sterling reputation, and you plan to announce his infidelity for the world to hear? You might as well go to the Eternal Flame Clan and slap her in the face. That will be less insulting. Do you really think she’ll focus her ire on me over you?”

“I am the granddaughter of an Elder of the Red Sky Pavilion and one of its most influential members,” Her mother says, drawing herself to her full height and putting a hand over her chest. “You are-”

“A wielder of the Eternal Flame who will soon break into the Earth Realm, the daughter of Lady Feng’s husband, and the wife-to-be of the Emperor of the Storm Dragon Empire,” Lu Mei says, mimicking her mother’s gesture. “Between the two of us, it is obvious who is the easier target.”

Her mother’s eyes flash with anger. “Are you implying your status is superior to mine?”

“I am stating it, mother,” Lu Mei says. “Lord Feng Shang and Lord Feng Gui are vying for Qing Jin’s favor. Killing me is the same as conceding to Lord Feng Gui. Lord Feng Shang will never allow it. You, however, are just a member of the Red Sky Pavilion. No matter how important you believe yourself to be, do you really think anyone in the Red Sky Pavilion will pick you over a stable alliance with the Eternal Flame Clan?”

“You…arrogant… girl…”

Her mother’s Qi lashes out like a whirlwind, threatening to uproot the trees around them.

Lu Mei is unmoved.

She has seen a real storm.

“You are not ignorant of this,” Lu Mei continues, raising her Qi to protect herself and make her voice heard over the wind. “That is why it makes no sense for you to be so willing to reveal everything. Unless, of course, you were already backed into a corner. Unless you were in desperate need to prove your worth to someone.”

Slowly, Lu Mei advances, fighting the wind until she is only three feet away from her mother.

“When did father grow tired of you?” Lu Mei asks, relishing the anger in her mother’s face. “When did his eyes begin to wander? Considering how you treated him, it is a wonder he wanted anything to do with you after overcoming his bottleneck. Well, I guess you still had some value back then, but that is no longer true, is it? I should have noticed it from the start. Mother, you are still in the First Level of the Heaven Realm.”

There is no anger this time, no sudden threats, no sense of imminent violence. After having her weakness pointed out, her mother can only look caught. Exposed. Almost fearful.

It is not as enjoyable as Lu Mei imagined it would be.

“All this time, I thought you were being cautious about your advancement. Everyone else probably thinks the same. However, your husband knows differently, doesn’t he? It is so very hard to hide things while dual-cultivating,” Lu Mei says. “It is not the potential shame of dying to tribulation lightning that stops you, mother. You can’t advance. You have hit a bottleneck.”

Her mother has been in the First Level of the Heaven Realm for as long as Lu Mei has known her.

Her father has not.

“Father has already decided you are not valuable. His eyes must have already begun to wander in search of someone more suitable,” Lu Mei says. “That is why you proposed this idea to him even though it could place your life in danger. You wanted to prove your worth, a temporary measure until you overcome your weakness. However, that’s not going to happen, mother.”

As Lu Mei finishes, an angry burst of Qi spreads over the whole of the Red Sky Pavilion.

“What is this?” Lu Yuting asks, eyes widening as she recognizes her husband’s angry Qi. “Foolish girl, what have you done?!”

“That, dearest mother, would be your husband learning that all those precious treaties you tried to entice him with are not going to happen in the way he wants.”

~~~

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Lu Junjie trembles with rage.

“What is this?!”

“That should be self-evident, father-in-law,” Liu Jin says, meeting the older man’s anger with complete calm. “Those are the agreements that you wanted. I thought about it and realized that the Red Sky Pavilion and the Storm Dragon Empire could benefit from some trade. The flying items your Sect produces would be of great aid to my country.”

Communication and travel in the Storm Dragon Empire are greatly underdeveloped, especially in Murong Bang’s former territories. Flying items would help expand the army’s reach and efficiency. There would no longer be any uncommunicated areas.

“Don’t mock me, boy!” Lu Mei’s father shouts, slamming the contracts on his desk. His aura sends the door flying off its hinges. “These… These are not the contracts I gave you!”

“Obviously not, those were terrible,” Liu Jin replies. “It was only natural that I changed them to something fair.”

The documents Lu Mei’s father gave him the other day were only fair superficially. However, the more one read into the many clauses of the trade agreements, the more unfair they became. In essence, they sought to turn the Storm Dragon Empire into an eternal customer of the Red Sky Pavilion, one subject to very high interest rates. While not the sort of thing that could ruin the country, it would give the Red Sky Pavilion and, by extension, Lu Junjie far too much power.

“This…” Lu Junjie says, holding up one of the contracts. He breathes so heavily that the air in the room is sucked out. “… is a joke! This seal has to be fake… There is no way you could have…”

“I am afraid not. That is, in fact, my seal,” Patriarch Wu says as he enters the room with the impeccable timing possessed by those with high cultivation. “After the young Emperor showed me the contracts, we agreed they were a tad harsh, and a more equal agreement would be of greater benefit to both parties.”

Lu Junjie’s Qi is blown away. The man looks wide-eyed at the Patriarch of his Sect, not quite able to believe he is really there.

“Patriarch Wu… Why would you do this?” Lu Junjie asks, taking a few staggering steps toward the man. He holds his hand up towards him in confusion. “Why would you sabotage my efforts like this?”

It is a completely natural question. If Liu Jin had submitted to the original contracts, the Red Sky Pavilion would have benefited immensely. From Lu Junjie’s point of view, there is no reason why Patriarch Wu would have helped Liu Jin, so he can only take it as an act against his person.

He cannot possibly know of the game of poison shared by the two.

~~~

“Three-tailed scorpion venom with spirit tree leaves and the tear of a one-eyed behemoth,” Liu Jin says, rubbing his chin as he puts down the bottle. “I must confess I do not know the name, but this seems to me like a slow-acting paralyzing agent. If used in large enough quantities, it will kill slowly. The victim will be completely aware of their body dying but be unable to do anything about it.”

“The Long Death is the most common name,” Patriarch Wu says. “To think you would be able to determine the ingredients so easily. Your skill is truly astounding. I wish we could continue this game, but…”

He looks down at the table and all the opened bottles.

“It seems we have run out of bottles.”